'I never thought there'd be so many laughs!' Review of Clement Attlee: a modest little man

This debut production from community group Red Wall Theatre played to three packed houses at Harrogate’s St Robert’s Club, and an equally-packed fourth at Ripon Arts Hub followed by a Q and A with the play’s author Francis Beckett.

All players were totally in character, the pace brisk and the humour effective. I was not expecting so many laughs.  Joel Dean, as Attlee, was exceptional.  How lucky to find someone who looked the part and conveyed the man so well! With utterances comprising mostly non-committal grunts, his contrastingly-chatty wife Violet (played by director Jan Williams) explains his survival strategy: ‘He thinks every word he says could cause trouble. The fewer words he says, the more chance he’s got.’ When ‘to get him going’ a reporter mentions his beloved cricket, the humour becomes laugh-out-loud with the ensuing verbal torrent.

The play showed the welfare state’s formation in 1948 and the diverse Labour team enacting it, from slippery old-Etonian Hugh Dalton (Brian Heye) and capable but duplicitous Herbert Morrison (Gary Gordon) to impetuous former miner Nye Bevan (Mick Caulfield) – all wanting a fairer society. We saw how Bevan’s vision drove the creation of the NHS despite Conservative opposition, a virulently right-wing press accusing him of ‘Nazi-like coercion,’ and indeed the doctors themselves - whose mouths Bevan famously ‘stuffed with gold.’

Emily Alderson was compelling as Rose, the Limehouse waif who unwittingly gives the young Attlee his political vocation and who years later hilariously attempts to tutor him in street-corner speaking. Janet Wilson conveyed a ‘prickly’ Jennie Lee while assistant director David Aldred, as King George VI, rivalled Attlee in shyness. Ian Clarke brought enjoyable pomposity to the dual roles of Churchill and journalist John Carvel. Many will look forward to Red Wall’s next venture.